The traditional Good Friday service in Anguilla, in observance of the passion and crucifixion of Jesus, continues to be a solemn event on the island. In addition to the vigils earlier in the day, a group from the Anguilla Christian Council, represented by members of the Methodist, Anglican and St. Gerard’s Roman Catholic Church, participated in a procession and church service.
They walked from an area of the main road in the vicinity of the Department of Infrastructure in The Valley to the Ebenezer Methodist Chapel where the service was held. The well-attended service was called to order by the Reverend Dr. Wycherley Gumbs, Superintendent of the Anguilla Methodist Circuit, and the sermon was delivered by the Reverend Lindsay Richardson.
The procession and the entry into the church were filmed by a BBC 2 team producing episodes of island life in Anguilla.
Following is Reverend Richardson’s verbatim sermon.
GOOD FRIDAY SERMON – The Crucifixion of Jesus
March 25, 2016
“We woke this morning to the news that the high court met in session last night about 9:30/10:00 O’clock and a trial was carried out of a young man. The witnesses’ stories did not agree with each other; the jury was pulled from the crowd; the defendant had no lawyer; he was found guilty and sentenced to death with immediate effect. A contingent rushed to lodge their concerns and discontent with the government authorities, and the word is that the authorities simply washed their hands of the matter and walked away. The man was executed at midday without the chance of an appeal hearing. Was justice served here? Can we hold on to the claim that we are a God fearing people and nation? It is understandable when a few people hate you or even plenty people hate you and wish to get rid of you; but when not only the people hate you but the system hates you too and corroborates with the powerful haters in the community who brainwash the masses to hate you, you don’t stand a chance. The truth is when the devil is out to destroy you, he will pull out every stop until he succeeds. This young man didn’t stand a chance, and this is why we are gathered here this afternoon.
Many of you are no d
oubt confused and your minds are racing to find clarity and understanding. How could the highest court in the land meet in the middle of the night to try a case in the way just described? Why the sudden turning of the wheels of justice? What was it that this young man did – what crimes did he commit, to warrant such a swift execution of justice? Was justice served?
Now that you are imagining or perhaps wondering such a situation happening today in Anguilla, you can perhaps begin to appreciate what happened when Jesus was arrested in the garden of Gethsemane, taken to the religious court, the highest in the land, tried in the middle of the night, without proper defense; sentenced to death, and the Governor of the day simply washed his hands to say to the people, I have nothing to do with this, you people do what you want; and in doing so gave the people full permission to ridicule, abuse, torture, persecute and cruelly crucify and put to death a young man in his thirties for no other reason than the system was jealous of him and hated him because he made them look bad. For the record, no such incident happened in Anguilla last night. Relax, we are not that bad; or are we?
The experience of Jesus on that tragic Friday was no different from the time of his birth. The authorities then didn’t understand the message and purpose of his birth, and a major operation ordered by the head of state was executed to have Jesus killed even before he was born. Plots against his life continued and intensified as he grew older, as those who held power felt more and more threatened by this young man. Threatened, not because Jesus was a risk to society at large, but he was a risk to their authority and power over the people. As the risk grew so did their hatred and determination to neutralize Jesus. Hatred is born out of jealousy, insecurity, ignorance, fear, shame, embarrassment, greed, being ignored, overlooked, abused, taken for granted, taken advantage of; and the only end of hatred is destruction and death.
Jesus was hated before he was born. He was hated more, when as a young man he stepped into his purpose; and they didn’t stop hating him until they killed him; and that summarizes the mission and purpose of t
he devil. 1 Peter 5:8 explains and says, “Your adversary the devil, is as a roaring lion, walking about, seeking whom he may devour.” St. John 10:10 describes him as a thief who cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. It didn’t start with Jesus, neither did it end with Jesus. Many prophets before Jesus’ time who dared to stand up and be the mouthpiece of The Almighty God were persecuted and killed. Similarly, since the time of Jesus, up to today, famous men and women, as well as ordinary unknown people are being persecuted and killed for their faith, because they dare to take a stand for righteousness, for justice, for the things of God. In Anguilla, while there may not be organized, systemic persecution and killing of the people of God, I invite you to put up your hand if you have never felt hated by others, if you have never felt hounded down, persecuted, overlooked, ignored, taken for granted, abused, or taken advantage of.
The truth is, the devil doesn’t care who you are. He walks up and down the streets of Anguilla, he walks the halls of every place of work, even the aisles of every church seeking whom he can devour. He is like a thief, but he is not only interested in stealing your money and your jewelry, your gas cylinder, your goat and your fish pot; he wants even more to steal your health, steal your peace of mind, steal your joy, steal your purpose, your hope, your heritage and your legacy. He wants to steal, kill and destroy you and everything you have. His main purpose and mission is to make sure your life is as miserable as possible, and he will use anything and anybody to make your life miserable.
Why is it that so many Christians, who are the bearers of good news of peace, joy, hope and abundant life – why is it that so many Christians are the most miserable people to be around, and their lives are filled with frustration, depression and misery? Why?
Why is it that so many young people are being afflicted with cancer, diabetes, and high blood pressure? Why is it that so many young people – the future of our families and our country, why is it that so many of our youth have lost hope in tomorrow, in themselves, and have resigned to kill or be killed? Why is it that so many of our youth feel like they don’t stand a chance, that they have no choice but to live and be as they are?
Why are so many men and women from all over the world being attracted to join movements that require them to sacrifice their lives as suicide bombers, and cause untold mayhem and death? And why is it that there are so many intelligent, powerful people in the world who believe that the way to defeat a suicide bomber and such movements is to threaten to kill them and wipe them out – when they don’t need any help, because they are quite prepared to do it themselves and take us out in the process?
I recall many years ago, at an ecumenical service at St. Mary’s Anglican Church, at a service I believe held in response to the start of war in Iraq or some other time of conflict, and I invited you to dream with me as to wh
at it would mean if instead of bombs being dropped from the skies, food and water and blankets and pamphlets of peace and love would rain down on those who were considered the enemy? A very naïve, simplistic and no doubt stupid invitation to many. But one thing is clear; the enemy which was then a few tens of thousands has now become hundreds of thousands. I still believe that you don’t need to graduate from kindergarten or Cave elementary school, to figure out that if I killed your parents, your husband, your sons, your brothers and innocent family members, that you will just forget about it and not seek revenge against me and all who align and associate themselves with me. We listen to those who desire to be the next president of the USA – regarded as the most powerful nation on the planet, belch out such rhetoric from their platform, they will destroy and kill ISIS if elected, as if ISIS is a bus full of people on a desert road. Then to hear the current president of the USA expressing a view severely ridiculed as naïve and cowardly because he refuses to go to war with ISIS, but instead chose to use rhetoric against ISIS as a means of defeating them. President Obama said his strategy is to describe ISIS as weak. But there is a hidden irony here that could be overlooked or downplayed. While those who criticize Obama because they feel the USA is powerful enough to destroy ISIS, and to talk of ISIS as being weak is a sign of cowardice – consider this: POWER TENDS TO BREED SHORT SIGHTED ARROGANCE, WHILE WEAKNESS FUELLED BY HATRED BREEDS A FEARLESS DESPERATION WE CANNOT BEGIN TO IMAGINE.
One thing is clear, the short sighted arrogance of dropping bombs on the enemy back then didn’t work because it gave birth to more hatred which is now manifested in ISIS; and dropping bombs on ISIS today, in an effort to bring them to justice for all the horrific mass killings throughout the world, will further cause the spread of this fearless desperate hatred like a cancer. Even if there is success and all who are actively engaged in ISIS are defeated and killed; is there any guarantee that the future will not create a worse hatred and even more desperate technologically advanced movement that would make ISIS look like children fighting in the park?
Rev, seems like you are a pacifist, you don’t like violence? Hear this, Jesus was a pacifist who wasn’t afraid to take a broom stick and drop some blows on some church people who were turning the temple which was to be a house of prayer into a den of thieves. Call me what you want, I know who I am, and I am keeping it real. There has never been a time in history when hatred and violence was quenched by more violence. Yes we have had wars, and those wars came to an end after much violence, destruction and death; and perhaps one side recognizing they were being defeated and surrendering. But does surrender mean all is well and that there will be henceforth lasting peace? The world is just how the devil wants it to be, because his mission of destruction and death is being fulfilled. 
There is a fundamental principle that the devil continues to use to destroy us and it is called the power of the people. Notice how just six days before Jesus was put to death, the power of the people elevated Jesus and recognized him to be the Messiah, welcoming him into the city of Jerusalem as their King? Notice also how the devil used the same power of the people instigated by a few influential leaders – fueled by hatred, to shout crucify him resulting in Jesus’ death.
Back then I invited you to dream with me. Now I simply ask you to imagine what it would have been like today, if the USA and its allies had won over the masses of people with baskets of food and love and goodwill, rather than drop baskets of bombs on them. Do you realize it was the same masses of people who many years later, were involved in the Arab Spring. Imagine if they were enabled instead through love and goodwill to rise up way back then against their oppressive regimes – imagine what this world would have been like today.
When Jesus started his ministry he was tempted of the devil to use the power of the people to fulfil his ministry. The devil knows what works. Hey Jesus! Turn the stones into bread, the masses will love you and follow you anywhere. Jesus! Jump down from the steeple and touch down without a scratch – the people will be all over you. You would be there hero. You see the leaders of the world know when to use or abuse the masses of the people to accomplish their own selfish agenda and ambitions. Jesus said NO! He said to the people – don’t follow me because you got your belly full of grouper and Johnny cakes yesterday. Don’t follow me because I could heal your diseases and raise the dead. Follow me because you understand my mission and purpose. Follow me because you understand that goodness is something you do – not for praise or favour or reward; but goodness is something you do for goodness’ sake. Follow me because you are prepared and willing to accept that the road I am walking leads to a place call Golgotha. Follow me because you understand that following me involves taking up your cross daily. Follow me so long as you understand that the same people who love you today will hate you tomorrow. Follow me because you understand that there are those who will kiss your feet out of devotion and love, and there
are those who will kiss you on the cheek as they betray you to those who hate you. Don’t come after me if you are looking fame and fortune. Don’t come after me if you are looking for a life of ease and comfort, because many will hate you just for calling my name.
It didn’t start with Jesus, neither did it end with Jesus. In fact Jesus said, if they did it to me they will do it to you. Yes, the devil moved the leaders and people of the day to persecute and destroy the life of Jesus. They not only succeeded in killing him, but they tried to steal and wipe out his legacy. They sealed the tomb and placed their best security at the entrance of the tomb, because they didn’t want to take any chances and allow his disciples to cook up a story that would fuel the legacy of Jesus. They tried to steal and crush the Gospel of Jesus, and they thought they succeeded with their mockery of a trial and sentence of death, and they thought they had won when Jesus said Te Telesthai – it is finished.
As ministers in training at the theological seminary in Jamaica, when we were sitting exams, we would listen and hear in the distance shouts of TETELESTHAI, and you would know that one of us had just completed our final exam. It is finished. But there was also a famous phrase – words of a song sung by a Jamaican Artiste at the time which said, “You think seh me done, mi just a come”. Which reminds me of a scene in the movie THE MATRIX, when Neo was killed by the agents and left for dead. But he came back from the dead, and said to them in essencec, “you think seh me done, mi just a come.” Throughout the movie, NEO who was believed to be THE ONE – and I cant help but recognize the many religious themes and motifs in this movie – NEO was viewed by some as the One who alone could deliver the people of Zion – in other words he was their messiah. Neo use to run from the agents, until he himself begun to understand who he was and what was his mission. Then he stopped running, and stood up and fought the agents. They killed him, but then by some miracle, because he was THE ONE, he came back to life, but this time Neo, who before could see only in part and believed only in part, he now could see fully – he now understood that he didn’t have to fight them, beca
use the matrix was now visible – and if you watched the movie I want you to ponder how Neo destroyed the agents who were the enemy of ZION. For what he did gave me some insight into what Jesus did, when his haters sought to not only kill him, but to humiliate him and destroy his legacy by sentencing him to die the cruelest of death between who they believe were the lowest of criminals – two thieves. NEO stopped fighting and he ran towards the agents who he could now see were nothing more than ones and zeroes – a computer programme, and he immersed himself into their programme and exploded it to threads destroying the agents.
I am going to summarize some key points and end this message in a minute.
I said earlier that Jesus was hated even before he was born. He was hated by those who felt threatened by him as he carried out his ministry. Such was the hatred that they didn’t stop until they convinced the people to rally against him and to have him crucified. – Jesus endured the insults, the mockery, the ridicule, the physical torture, and the beatings. He endured it all, all the way to Golgotha’s hill – to Calvary: The crown of thorns piercing his head, the blows in his head with a stick while wearing the thorns; the rugged nails in his hands and feet. He endured it all, because his mission was to die, so that you and I could live; for he came so that we might have life and have it more abundantly.
I established that the devil’s only mission and purpose is to destroy; like a thief he only wants to steal, kill and destroy. The devil is the one behind all efforts of destruction and death. He is the one who will strip you of your reason to live, your joy, your sense of purpose, your sense of self. He is the one who will try to steal your heritage and your legacy. He tried it with Jesus, and as Jesus said, he will do the same to you and me, because he is a thief of all that is good. The haters who got rid of Jesus decided to kill Jesus and to steal his heritage, his message, his legacy by killing him between two thieves, as if to suggest Jesus is nothing but a thief.
But Jesus used the shame and disgrace of the cross to his glory and the glory
of God – for if the son of man is lifted up, he will draw all people unto him. The centurion who witnessed how Jesus died, and saw how the darkness covered the earth and the earthquake accompanied the death of Jesus, he fell to his knees and declared “TRULY HE WAS THE SON OF GOD!”
One of the thieves sentenced to die also chimed in mocking and deriding Jesus, asking him why he doesn’t save himself and them too. The other thief saw in Jesus a far greater power and said Lord, remember me when you come into your Kingdom.
This should have been enough for the haters to call off the crucifixion. But they were too scared and unsure as to what was happening with the darkness and the earthquake etc. They should have stopped the crucifixion, because – after all that Jesus had been through, and despite all the suffering he was enduring on the cross, this man Jesus was still able to overcome the power of hatred with an amazing love that was flowing from every inch of his tortured and torn body. An amazing love that this thief embraced and so found salvation, as Jesus turned and looked the thief in the eye and said, Today, TODAY, you shall be with me in paradise. They nailed his hands outstretched on the cross to torture him, but the thief saw hands outstretched welcoming him and saying come unto me all ye that labour and heavy burdened, come and I will give you rest.
They crucified him between two thieves to disgrace and discredit him, but Jesus with outstretched arms dived in as it were into the depths of the manifestation of disgrace, humiliation and hatred, and unleashed the power of his love, which is the only force powerful enough to uproot, overcome, disassemble, disintegrate, shatter, splinter, dissipate, and destroy the ugly manifestation of the devil’s schemes of hatred, jealousy, envy destruction and death. Jesus’s love erupted on the cross, the centurion felt it and was saved. The dying thief embraced it and was delivered in death. The very cross and the very association with thieves in death which were meant to humiliate and destroy the testimony, witness and message of Jesus became the message – a message of the power of Love over death, the power of love over envy, jealousy and hatred, which exploded across Golgotha’s hill when Jesus cried, FATHER FORGIVE THEM FOR THEY KNOW NOT WHAT THEY DO. Jesus embraced and allowed himself to be submerged in defeat, in suffering, in disgrace, in shame, in death between two thieves, so that the power of his love could erupt and burst forth destroying the King of all thieves – the devil; transforming Calvary from a place of pain, suffering, shame and death into a place of healing, deliverance, salvation and victory. To the human naked eye, the crucifixion of Jesus was a horrible miscarriage of justice, a case of hatred disguised as justice, but to the dying thief on the cross and the centurion at the foot of the cross, it was the power of love over evil, the victory of weakness over the seeming powerful; the triumph of forgiveness over hatred – all done through the manifestation of God’s glory through the very instruments of shame and defeat.
Some of you have been persecuted and tortured by people who say they love you, but all you feel is hatred; some of you have been down-pressed, frustrated, denied what is rightfully yours, denied a fair trial, had your freedom, your dignity, your name, your virtue, your honour YOUR HEALTH, stolen from you by the devil and at the hands of jealous, spiteful, hateful people; some of you have been battered, bruised, neglected, abused and have lost the will to live. Some of you have been serving God, doing His will, serving others, giving of yourself to others, reaching out and caring for the less fortunate, the wounded, the abandoned, the hungry, the imprisoned, and all you get in return is hatred and criticism. Your life is filled with dark clouds and earthquake like rumblings everywhere you turn, and it seems like it will never end. Hear this, the haters turned their backs and walked away thinking they were done and that Jesus was finished; but God said then and he says to you today, I am not done yet. What is finished is that the price of sin has been paid; but the magnitude and power of my love is now manifested to the world. They persecute you to destroy you and they mean it for evil, But I Jehovah God will bring you good out of it. For I bring order out of chaos, Glory out of suffering, victory out of defeat. I bring life out of death…. No beloved, God isn’t through with you yet. For out of your misery, pain and loss, and through the power of his unconditional love, God will bring victory and honour and glory. That is why we can celebrate the suffering and death of Jesus today. So we pray for more grace to do like Jesus and Love the haters and let God! AMEN!
(The entire sermon was published without editing by The Anguillian newspaper.)
